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Join us for our town hall The #RentboyRaid Is Every Day to learn and organize around the #RentboyRaid, police profiling and violence against people in the sex trades, and the Human Trafficking Intervention Courts, along with other issues of concern to people in the sex trades and sex workers in New York City.

This informational sheet was published on September 3, 2015 by The #HookUp Collaborative, which is not affiliated with any company or organization, but is instead a loose working group of people who have advertised – and people in community with advertisers – on Rentboy.com, including lawyers, community members and organizers.

Nothing in this information sheet substitutes for individual legal advice. If you or someone you know advertised on Rentboy.com, do not discuss anything related to your individual circumstances except in a private consultation with a lawyer. In the event you are contacted by law enforcement, instruct them that you are remaining silent, that you do not consent to a search, and that you wish to speak with an attorney. If you are in New York and are in need direct legal representation or you have questions about a pending case, call the Sex Workers Project at (646) 602-5617 to be connected to an attorney. Being a prospective or actual client of a lawyer is the only way to ensure your statements will be protected by attorney-client privilege.

Rentboy.com is being targeted by the police and people who have advertised their services on the platform are concerned. The federal search warrant that was executed on August 25, 2015 resulted in the seizure of personal information. For instance, the Complaint alleges in ¶ 33 that “Rentboy.com allows payment for advertisements in cash at its office, money order, and credit card.” However there is no internet card processing system and instead an advertiser must fill out a Credit Card authorization form and send it by fax or e-mail to Rentboy.com. It is possible that the servers seized contain this information.

New York, NY, September 3, 2015—The #HookUp Collaborative—a loose working group of people who have advertised, and people in community with advertisers, on Rentboy.com—views last Tuesday’s raid as just the latest, but by no means the greatest, enforcement action in the ongoing criminalization of people who trade sex. People in our communities are arrested on prostitution related offenses every single day in the streets, brothels, and massage parlors where we seek to make our work safer. The vast majority of those arrested are people of color, especially women, trans-women and gender non-conforming people of color. Continue reading “#HOOKUPCOLLAB STATEMENT: THE RENTBOY RAID IS EVERY DAY: ONE KNOT IN A DRAGNET OF STATE VIOLENCE AGAINST PEOPLE IN THE SEX TRADE”→

The #RentboyRaid has drawn the ire of everyone from the Editorial Board of The New York Times to, well, the people the raid actually affects. Tomorrow, a coalition of groups including local political clubs the Jim Owles Liberal Democratic Club, Stonewall Democrats, and Lambda Independent Democrats of Brooklyn (LID) will gather at the U.S. Federal Court for the Eastern District of New York, located at 225 Cadman Plaza East in Brooklyn. For the Facebook event click here.

The Gay City News reporter Duncan Osborne – whose coverage has included the use of stings and nuisance abatement lawsuits targeting gay sex venues for prostitution arrests in New York City – published his latest take on the Rentboy.com raid (“Cy Vance: Don’t Blame Me for Rentboy.com Raid,” Aug. 27, 2015). This one focuses on the suspicious distancing of Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance from the enforcement action that took down Rentboy.com, despite the fact that the U.S. Attorney on the case originally credited his office for their involvement.

This one includes a quote from Rico Stone, a member of #HookUp. The latter part of Rico’s quote was cut from the article, but we share you the full text below:

Cy Vance is understandably distancing his office from the nightmarish raid on an important safety tool for people in the sex trades. Whether or not his office contributed to the raid itself, it happened under its watch. His office should be just as concerned with the continued questioning, harassment and arrest of people who are or are profiled in the sex trades for carrying condoms, his offices’s raids on people in the sex trades using shared apartments or massage parlors to increase our safety, and the targeting of people of color for prostitution-related arrests and prosecutions in his borough.